The Bellator lightweight title shot for Dave Jansen was scheduled to take place in the summer of 2013, but that trip had to take a detour and he will get his opportunity tonight to become a world champion when he meets Will Brooks in the main event of Bellator 136.
Jansen (20-2) won the season seven lightweight tournament over two years ago when he defeated Marcin Held and was scheduled to challenge Michael Chandler for the title.
However, Jansen suffered a knee injury in training and force him out of the fight. After recovering from the injury, he came back in October and scored an impressive decision victory over two-time tournament winner Rick Hawn at Bellator 130.
He will now challenge Brooks for the lightweight title. The two fighters have exchanged words over Twitter and they continued their exchange of words during the official weigh-ins on Thursday afternoon in California. While discussing Brooks on a recent edition of The MMA Report Live, Jansen explained how Brooks is not a good actor and did a bad job of trolling him on Twitter.
“He is not a good actor,” Jansen said. “I am the only one that sees this? He is always like, ‘I am walking like a champion, talking like a champion, dressed like a champion.’ What champion? Which one because it’s not Will Brooks. Who is he trying to imitate? He is a parrot. He just rattles off these phrases he thinks that sounds cool and tough. It’s a little bit funny to me that — it’s almost like he speaks English, but he should have an interpreter. ‘Well that Will really meant to say’ — one of his coaches, maybe we should phrase it like this instead.”
“He is going to get a lesson and yeah, I will teach it to him for sure. It’s not about Will Brooks. It’s about me. I am conquering myself. This is my road. My journey and I have said it before in a tweet — he was trolling me on Twitter for awhile and doing a pretty bad job at it. He is just the last stamp on my passport to a world title. He is just the last stamp. It would not matter if it was Michael Chandler or Marcin Held. Bellator has a plethora of excellent lightweights and I feel like I am the best.”
If Jansen is successful tonight, he will become the fourth lightweight champion in Bellator history and it would be his eighth straight win. Why does Jansen believe he is going to become the Bellator champion tonight? Jansen is quick to the point on this.
“Because I already got the victory,” he said. “I have done it so many times that I am just retracing my steps at this point. The fight is already won. I know it’s hard for you to comprehend. That is the thing. I do not need anyone else to comprehend that because I am the captain of this ship.”